Is this normal or should I call for "help"!!???

Worf101Jul 2, 2004, 9:08 PM

I just put together my new system. I put in the CPU, heatsink and fan (AMD recommended with a little artic silver), added ram and a video card and did a test power up. Everything runs fine (whew). I then went in and diddled with the bios settings... set the date, time... made sure the bios recognised my chip and ram and all that.

There's only one thing I noticed that gave me some pause. The cpu, obviously at idle is running between 49/50 degrees celcius with NO LOAD!!!! I didn't panic, even though the fan was screaming. It's about 80 degrees in here, I didn't have the sides on the machine or the case fans hooked up. I turned off the system and came up here to ask a few questions.

1. Considering the ambient temperature, no case, no case fans and "quiet cool" operating system installed yet... am I panicing or are things "okay".

2. Will these temps go down once the case is "buttoned up".

3. Is the CPU running unnacceptably hot under any circumstances and should I pull and repaste the CPU before I fry something...

First off, your chip will shut down if it gets too hot. Asus boards do tend to show temps high. You cant trust the sensor, as it has never been calibrated (cant be done). Check for a bios update, as this has been a problem for some boards.Did you take the thermal interface off before adding the AS?The only true test for overheating is to have the sytem crash.Closing the case down may help with airflow, if you have intake and exhaust balanced.One of the most comon mistakes is using a psu that has no bottom fan. These suck a lot of the heat off the chip.

Dont panic bud they run hot on the factory HSF, i would recommend you spend some jack on a Thermaltake heatpipe solution, they make the most wicked thermal solution ever, this is serious cooling, it runs Dual 90mm Fans for quiet operation, it is the most inovative solution i have ever seen for air cooling. With this baby on the job you can relax, and know your days of worrying about the temp of your CPU are over.

*Note*The package is sold without fans, so you will need to purchase 2 fans for the dual fan setup, buy the most quiet 90mm fans you can get your hands on and run them at the optimal db/cooling configuration.

This is not a inexpensive solution, however it is cheaper then water cooling by far, and is the absolute best air solution there is bar none.

Once I got the system buttoned up, "Quiet and Cool" installed and all the motherboard bios updated and drivers installed, the rig has been running a steady 47 degrees Celcius. Everything is looking good. ASUS has a utility that allows you to monitor temperatures, fan speeds etc while in XP and things are looking good. Kestrel cpu fan's a little "whiney" but this is an intermittant thing.